tence had softened with his sorrow, and was now overpast.

Nevertheless, it may have been some lingering remnant of this fervour of
reform that dictated the severe punishment which fell that year upon the
flagitious Bishop of Cosenza. A fine trade was being driven in Rome by
the sale of forged briefs of indulgence. Raynaldus cites a Bull on that
score addressed by Alexander, in the first year of his pontificate, to
the bishops of Spain, enjoining them to visit with punishment all who
in that kingdom should be discovered to be pursuing such a traffic. On
September 4, 1497, Burchard tells us, three servants of the Pontifical
Secretary, the Archbishop of Cosenza (Bartolomeo Florido) were arrested
in consequence of the discovery of twenty forged briefs issued by them.
In their examination they incriminated their master the archbishop, who
was consequently put upon his trial and found guilty. Alexander deposed,
degraded, and imprisoned him in Sant' Angelo in a dark room, where
he was supplied with oil for his lamp and bread and water for his
nourishment until he died. His underlings were burnt in the Campo di
Fiori in the following month.

The Duke of Gandia left a widow and two children--Giovanni, a boy of
three years of age, and Isabella, a girl of two. In the interests of
her son, the widowed duchess applied to the Governor of Valencia in
the following September for the boy's investiture in the rights of his
deceased father. This was readily granted upon authority from Rome, and
so the boy Giovanni was recognized as third Duke of Gandia, Prince
of Sessa and Teano, and Lord of Cerignola and Montefoscolo, and the
administration of his estates during his minority was entrusted to his
uncle, Cesare Borgia.

The Lordship of Benevento--the last grant made to Giovanni Borgia--was
not mentioned; nor was it then nor ever subsequently claimed by the
widow. It is the one possession of Gandia's that went to Cesare, who was
confirmed in it by the King of Naples.

The Gandia branch of the Borgia family remained in Spain, prospered and
grew in importance, and, incidentally, produced St. Francis de Borgia.
This Duke of Gandia was Master of the Household to Charles V, and thus
a man of great worldly consequence; but it happened that he was so moved
by the sight of the disfigured body of his master's beautiful queen
that he renounced the world and entered the Society of Jesus, eventually
becoming its General. He died in 1562, and in the